a) Field of the Invention
This concept relates to a building foundation system to protect houses and other building structures from floodwaters through buoyancy. The system relates to the structural support of the built environment and deals with buildings and structures located within flood plains, hurricane zones, marinas, tidal regions, or other areas where the levels of water rise and fall due to environmental changes such as seasonal changes or storm events.
b) Background Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,715,706 (Richard) discloses a floatable flood resistant building; the building may be prefabricated or regular construction. Air tanks are positioned below the floor joists and a separator acting as a gasket is positioned between the air tanks so that they do not damage one another. Guideposts in the form of rods or pipes are threaded to the frame of building said upwardly through the floor in between the inner and outer parts of the wall. Flexible connections are provided on the guide rods or posts to avoid snapping the rods during flotation of the building due to side sway.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,037 (Otis) discloses a series of flotation and structural units and building structures. Referring to column 2 at line 45, a floating boat house structure has three laterally spaced walkways which are connected at the rear portions by transversely extending modules. Each walkway is formed of a plurality of rectangular flotation units. Referring to column 3 at line 19, each module is made of a rigid metallic frame. The frame is embedded in and surrounded by expanded plastic substrate. The substrate makes the frames buoyant due to the watertight covering.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,146 (Maari) discloses a connecting arrangement between a floating structure and an anchor, where the arrangement includes an upwardly extending rigid bar or rod connected at the base for vertical swaying movement about two perpendicular horizontal axes to the anchor. Thus the vertically aligned bar can swivel 360° and change from a vertically aligned direction to an angularly aligned position. At the upper end, the rod is connected to links which are connected to arms that are pivotally connected at a plurality of points to a floating platform.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,769 (Lee) discloses a floatable structure for floating on an ocean surface which is fixed relative to the ocean bottom. A plurality of submersible caissons and a floating box girder capable of supporting a modular superstructure are used as the foundation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,109 (Grip) discloses a pontoon bridge with automatic height adjusting and locking systems, the bridge has a superstructure supported by pontoons, each end of the bridge is affixed to the bottom by anchors and anchor cables which are clamped to the expected maximum load by means of sinkers and sink cables. The anchor cables and sink cables are wound in pairs and unwinding the anchor cable winds up the sink cable and vice versa.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,949 (Winston) discloses a landlocked floating house, which is a modular housing unit designed for flood water prone areas, factory built, utilizing wooden post tension frame construction. A sheathed modular solid foam float resides at the underside of the housing unit. Wooden piers serve as the foundation preceding the flood water conditions. A series of oscillating damping telescoping piers secured permanently to perimeter beams serve as station anchors to keep the house from floating away during flood water conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,693 (Carlinsky) discloses a flotation system for buildings; the system has a watertight basement with a single piece of concrete which forms the floor and walls of the basement. Rollers are attached to the basement as the flood waters rise and recede, the rollers telescope guideposts located near the corners of the basement. Attached to the guideposts are ratchet systems for moving the building along the guideposts and maintaining it at a desired height. Guideposts in the current embodiment are vertically aligned I beams and the rollers are arranged so that they are fixed to the concrete basement and roll between the flanges against the web of the I-beam.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,207 (Mays) discloses a flood control device for protecting objects such as houses, industrial and commercial buildings, storage vessels, boat moorings, and other structures from rising water or flood waters. Essentially what appears is that the foundation has a series of concrete sub chambers with buoyant floats attached to vertically aligned guide shafts or pistons, the water enters into the concrete chamber and the floats rise due to buoyancy and carry the structure vertically upwards. The structure is supported by the vertically aligned pistons.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,734 (Thomas) discloses an apparatus for transporting and installing a deck of an offshore oil production platform, the apparatus has a barge, which is adapted to support a deck, and provides devices for moving the deck. The apparatus includes a support framework for the deck and the framework is adapted to be placed on the barge and includes devices for moving the deck vertically, so that the deck can be extended upwards from the barge and then placed on to the offshore oil production platform.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,487 (Davis) discloses a flood resistant building structure, which is floatable so that damage is reduced in the event of a flood. Referring to column 6 around line 28, the structure has a plurality of guideposts which extend vertically from support foundations. Sub floor bracing, as seen in column 6 line 41, is provided to reduce horizontal movement of the building during flood or wind forces. The bracing can take the form of any conventional arrangement known. The support foundations are concrete caissons. The guidepost is embedded into the concrete caisson during pouring of the foundation. A sheeting material encases the flooring structure and seals adjacent and against to the joist and beams to make a watertight compartment or void.